American Go E-Journal » Events/Tournaments

Ukraine: Yevhen Kolodin 4k took the Vitalii Trost Memorial on November 30 in Odesa. Serhii Stupachenko 9k placed second and Oleksandr Viter 7k was third. Turkey: Also on November 30, the Turkish Go Championship finished in Istanbul with Ozgur Degirmenci 3d in first, Kerem Karaerkek 2d in second, and Hayri Kilic 1d in third. Russia: Anton Zantonskikh 6d bested Andrej Arkharov 2d at the Championship of Khabarovsk District on November 23. Sergej Kastorin 4d came in third.– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news

Players met from November 28 to December 3 in Busan, Korea for the 2nd round of the Nongshim Cup. China’s performance was especially stunning with Wang Xi 9p winning four games in a row before he was defeated by Korea’s top player Park Junghwan 9p. Pressure was on Japan in game ten when Park faced Japan’s top player Iyama Yuta 9p (right). However, Iyama came through and secured a place for Japan in the Nongshim Cup Finals for the first time since the 12th Nongshim Cup in 2010-2011.

Shanghai will host the final round of the 16th Nongshim Cup in March 2015. Kim Jiseok 9p will represent Korea while China has Shi Yue 9p, Mi Yuting 9p, and Lian Xiao 7p on its roster. Historically, the Nongshim Cup has been dominated by Korean players (11 wins) while Japan has only won once. For more information on this year’s Nongshim Cup including photos, game records, and commentary, please visit Go Game Guru.–Annalia Linnan, based on a longer article by Go Game Guru

Most of the games for the first round of the 2014-2015 AGA City League have been played already “and they were spectacular,” says TD Steve Colburn. “With many of the strong AGA and CGA players playing we have seen some exciting games.”

Sweden: The Gothenburg Open finished on November 23 with Charlie Aakerblom 4d in first, John Karlsson 4d in second, and Erik Ouchterlony 4d in third. Romania: Also on November 23, Ionel Santa 2d took the Romanian Cup Semifinal in Bucuresti. Pierre Boulestreau 1d came in second and George Chirila 1d was third. Finland: Jaakko Virtanen 2d (left) bested Jesse Savo 4d at the Turku Championship on November 23 while Tuukka Muroke 2d placed third.– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news; photo courtesy of EuroGoTV

Four of China and Korea’s best faced off at the 19th LG Cup quarter and semifinals on November 17 through November 19 in Gangwon, Korea. Though they performed poorly last year, team Korea (left) dominated this year’s tournament with each player knocking out their Chinese counterpart including Kim Jiseok 9p’s win against defending champion Tuo Jiaxi 9p. Kim will play good friend Park Junghwan 9p in the finals from February 9 through February 12 at Seoul National University. For more information about the 19th LG Cup including photos, game records, and commentary by An Younggil 8p, please visit Go Game Guru.–Annalia Linnan, based on a longer article by Go Game Guru; photo courtesy of Go Game Guru

Italy: Andriy Zakharzhevskyy 1d bested Carlo Metta 2d at the Torneo del Gladiatore on November 16 in Rome while Andrea Mori 1k came in third. Hungary: Also on November 16, Dominik Boviz took the PaGoda Go Cup in Budapest. Gabor Szabics 5d was second and Gyorgy Csizmadia 4d placed third. Austria: The Salzburg 2014 finished on November 9 in HausDerNatur with Lothar Spiegel 5d (left) in first, Schayan Hamrah 5d in second, and Dominik Boviz 4d in third.– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news; photo courtesy of EuroGoTV

Watch your local team play this Sunday in the AGA City League. Games start at 3PM EST Sunday. Make sure to check out the latest GoPanda2 client as well; it has been updated recently and has new features.

The 2014 Samsung Cup semifinals finished on November 7 in Daejeon, Korea with Korea’s number two player Kim Jiseok 9p (left) to face defending champion Tang Weixing 9p. Kim’s rise to the top included solid wins against the top Chinese player Shi Yue 9p. Meanwhile, Tang was forced to play three intense games as himself and Korea’s top player Park Junghwan 9p trapped each other in many complicated territory battles.
Though Kim and Tang have played four other games together (Kim in the lead at 3-1), the 2014 Samsung Cup finals will be Kim’s first appearance in an international final. The match will take place on December 9 through December 11 in Xian, China. For more information about the semifinals including photos and game records, please visit Go Game Guru.–Annalia Linnan, based on a longer article by Go Game Guru

Ukraine: The Kharkiv Championship 2014 finished on November 2 with Oleksandr Hiliazov 1d in first, Anton Boreiko 4k in second, and Lenid Shumakov 5k in third. Germany: Also on November 2, Jonas Welticke 5d (left) took the NRW-Meisterschaft 2004 in Duesseldorf while Barbara Knauf 3d came in second and Bernd Radmacher 5d placed third. Finland: Juri Kuronen 6d bested Jusso Nyyssonen 5d at the Finnish Championship League in Helsinki on November 2. Javier-Aleksi Savolainen 5d was third.– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news; photo courtesy of EuroGoTV

Nearly 100 Pair Go Promotion Partners and other guests gathered in Tokyo, Japan on October 24 to kick off a weekend-long celebration of the 25th International Amateur Pair Go Championships. Hisao and Hiroko Taki hosted a fabulous dinner at the Hotel Okura to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Japan Pair Go Association and the Pair Go tournament. Mr. Taki is the inventor of Pair Go and the founder of the Japan Pair Go Association of which Mrs. Taki (right) is the current managing director. They held the formal dinner to thank everyone for their continuing efforts to promote Pair Go around the world. The Hotel Okura is a hotel established by and named for Kishichiro Okura, one of the founding patrons of the Nihon Ki-in.

Tournament action got started on Saturday morning at the Hotel Metropolitan Edmont with the drawing of the opening round pairings for the 32 pairs representing 21 countries and territories. The US pair, Yiwen (April) Ye and Daehyuk (Daniel) Ko, drew a difficult first round matchup and fell to one of the strong Japanese pairs.